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Samsung Botches Jay-Z App Launch?

The Internet and the launch of Jay-Z’s new app promoting the album Magna Carta Holy Grail have something in common: neither of them work all the time.

I’m not exactly Jay-Z’s biggest fan, but I do own a Samsung Galaxy SIII and I found the marketing campaign wherein Samsung bought a million copies of MCHG to give away to Galaxy owners intriguing. No harm in getting something for free, right? I downloaded the app yesterday, launched it, and got a white screen with the MCHG design on it in black. There was a spinning icon indicating something was loading, but it stopped and disappeared after a few seconds. Then nothing. The white MCHG screen stayed there, but nothing else happened. “Oh well,” I said to myself, “I guess nothing will happen until the giveaway at 12:01 AM, EST.”

Midnight on the east coast of the US came and went, and I launched the app again, and once again, I got the white screen and nothing else. No options, no buttons, nothing from the menu button on my phone. Just that one screen. Hmm, maybe it’s a bug. I decided to check the Google Play Store’s page for the app and see if I could find anything out.

What I found were 3,000 plus 1-star reviews, mostly from frustrated users experiencing the same problem I was having, but expressing considerably more emotion. Here are some samples:

“The app doesn’t work when the it gets to the reason everyone downloaded for Samsung I lost a lot of respect for you guys I’m getting an iPhone now. Never trusting Samsung again” – Kirubel

“I download it within minutes of the app coming out and I even got to select if I wanted to explicit or clean version… It’s July 4th and no album. Screw you. #teamiphone now.” – Harrison

“So what am I suppose do now about not being able to get the album how is this gonna be made up to the consumer. This has been a waste of my time” – Max

Some commenters take the liberty of using quite a few “colorful metaphors.” These three are more tame representations of the general feeling.

Granted, the app is working just fine for some people, and the 5-star reviews outnumber the 1-star by more than 2 to 1.

But here’s the fun question. Did Samsung botch the launch of this app, or are they doing it on purpose?

Wait, before you think I’m crazy, listen to what Jonah Berger wrote in the Harvard Business Review in March of this year. He stated that research he performed “demonstrates for the first time that under certain circumstances, even terrible publicity can bolster the bottom line.” He does add this caveat, that it “largely depends, we found, on whether or not consumers are already aware of the product.”

“Who is more well-known than Jay-Z?” you might ask. Hear me out. Yes, Jay-Z is well known to some, but not as many as you might think. Remember Ellen Grossman? Chances are some negative publicity about a botched app launch isn’t going to hurt Jay-Z at all amongst his fans, and might garner more attention from those who don’t know him. I mean here I am, writing about it. You think I’d be writing anything if the app had worked?

But then there’s Samsung. Even if a mismanaged app launch helps Jay-Z get more name recognition outside his normal audience, could it possibly do any good for Samsung? Berger says “If a risky tactic gets a bad response, the attention might nevertheless increase product recognition and ultimately boost sales.”

I’m going to guess that Samsung just botched it. Even if the bad publicity works out to be a positive, I can’t see them taking the risk. Perhaps there wasn’t sufficient testing of the app, or maybe it was some weak link Samsung couldn’t possibly have tested for. The only thing I know for sure is that after taking an hour to write this, the app still isn’t working for me. And I was so looking forward to getting in touch with what white teenage boys are listening to these days.

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You’re probably better off not listening to what teenage boys or even twenty-somethings are listening to. At least 85% of the lyrics are damaging and degrading, but that doesn’t stop me, because I’m a gangster.

Just don’t bump it too loud when it finally works. I know you have a tendency to ball out of control when you feel a beat.

The reason it’s not working for you is that you had to be one of the first million to download the app on June 24th. I downloaded it at 4pm EDT on that day and I have the album! I actually wasn’t sure till today if I was in the first million or not, but in the days since then I have been able to see lyrics to a new song every day (if I shared it on my facebook page first) and clips of Jay-Z talking about the songs. The app still doesn’t work very well though, it’s slow, freezes, and “stops” a lot. I had to download an update to the app today to get the album to play. You can only play it within the app, but still pretty cool to have it for free, and 3 days before official release.

Yes, I think it was just glitchy, probably due to too many people hammering it at the same time. They were smart to release it at midnight rather than noon, otherwise the troubles would have been compounded by many more users.

As an update, the app did start working for me eventually, although not without more glitches. It got stuck on the screen that asked me for my age for a while and I had to open it and close it a few times to get past that point. But now I’m in and everything seems to be working fine.

Jay-Z’s Magna Carta Holy Grail – A first-listen review Jay-Z’s “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” which became available through the Samsung app (but also leaked elsewhere) late last night, is a lot to get through on a holiday… and not just if you have a Samsung phone. (Samsung users faced difficulties when downloading the album at midnight, receiving error messages and delays TendaiTheBanker TendaiTheBanker ‏@Tomm_Ford My Jay Z Samsung app tanked so I had to take a leak #MagnaCartaHolyGrail.) Read the full review here http://tendaitoday.blogspot.com/